BATTLES
“What you said, how true is it?”
Rotimi asked, trying to play cool so she could stay on the safe side.
“Isn’t it wonderful to find out that your mother still did not tell you this before now, sad enough”
Chief Oluwaseyi said, taking a slow stare at her.
‘Oh, don’t tell me you don’t know what happens in your family.”
Rotimi speedily turns her eyes towards him
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Well, it’s amazing that you are dead therefore nothing can work out again.”
“What exactly?”
“You were just too proud of your role that you barely had time to check your family to know what’s up with them. Anyways if you’re ready to know exactly what happened, then meet me at the museum by six.”
“Six?” why don’t you tell me here?”
Rotimi said, looking at him, and she folded her arms.
“If you want to know, then that’s when I can talk to you.”
Chief Oluwaseun said as he left her presence, Rotimi found that very annoying, and she turned around and headed to the library. She indeed believes that there is something else they can do to escape whatever they are in together. She didn’t want Abeni to go through any stress in life, and most of all,, she didn’t want Femi to end up making silly choices like their father.
She saunters, letting her brain do some thinking and calculations.
Then she finally decides to go to the library, and they must have had something close to that nature that might just be the solution to what she is looking for.
Whereas these are the things that add up to make a great thing to the spirit realm. The ability for you to not consistently think of your pains and grieve and taking ever attacking that to just attack and attack, Without Rotimi’s knowledge, a record was being made for her. Her compassion rate was just increasing. Rotimi, on the other hand, had forgotten that Chief Oluwaseun is her most hated rival, her mind was just to find the cure and, one way or the other, just tell Femi the answer so he could stop worrying too much, whereas Chief Oluwaseun was just setting an absorbing trap for her. To him, it was his chance to eliminate her from the existence of humanity truly. The obsession of winning was finally all in his mind at that moment.
Rotimi finally gets into the library, and the library attendance had already known her to be a regular book worm. She greeted her as usual, but the woman, in return, called her.
“Excuse me, Rotimi!”
“Good day, ma, once again.”
Rotimi said so as she could create a scene for humor. The woman laughed, though, and Rotimi leaned forward to hear what she had to say.
“Which school did you attend back on earth? You must have loved studying”
Rotimi smiles first and then raises her head later and looks at the woman.
“No! I stopped attending school once my dad died”
“Is that supposed to be pathetic? Because at this point, I do not know what to say exactly. Sorry?”
“It’s cool, ma. I developed PSTD that made me most times lost, annoyed, and of course, aggressive. So, I just had to withdraw from school a bit.”
“Oh, that must have been tough for you.”
“It's fine, I overcame it, and I’m ok.”
“It’s just that the way you are reading is making me proud. You must love reading.”
“I just found that here as I am a spirit being”
 “Okay, so I don’t end up taking much of your time, you can go ahead now.”
Rotimi smiles as she leaves with her sign-in card. Rotimi didn’t forget her mission of looking for the answers to Femi and Abeni’s problems.
#
“Your countenance is really bright today; do you mind sharing the reason behind this?”
Senator Lawal said looking at Chief Oluwaseun who kept his smiling face and paced around the room.
“I have seen you happy before but not this happy, so can you share the reason why you are actually this happy?”
Senator Tunde said rigidly, taking his glass of cocktail to his mouth.
“Rejoice with me oh dear friends, for today shall be the execution of my one and only Rival, all thanks be to the sense bestowed on me to embark on this great journey.”
Chief Oluwaseun said with both hands lifted as a cheering sign. Indeed, his heart was glad that finally, he would trap Rotimi and finally execute her.
“Tell us what this great joy is all about? Rotimi? Is she finally dead?”
“No, but very soon, she’s a step closer to my trap of death.”
Chief Oluwaseun said.
“Then this calls for a party, I mean, if you really are going to do this, then it’s worth it, it indeed causes a party.”
Senator Tunde said with an enlightened tone.
Rotimi of truth is one of the most significant troubles they have ever gotten. Rotimi, unlike the rest of their ritual, is said to have a different kind of covering around her because of Oluwaseyi, who was always around her.
Meanwhile, with a pure heart holding nothing against him, Rotimi was ready to find out anything concerning her family background and how the mess can be ended.
#
Abeni woke up, and opens her eyes gently as the room light happened to be too bright for a wake-up sleep eye.
“Good morning, babe!”
Femi said, looking at her and unwrap herself slowly from his arms.
“Where you staring at me.”
“Anything wrong with that?”
“Yes! I mean no, but I find that very creepy to do, stalking me in the morning! “
“I mean, it’s my wife I’m looking at, not some pictures!”
Abeni smiles and kissed him as she told him to get down, so they do their normal morning prayers, Femi agreed to be the one to lead this time in the prayers, and earnestly according to their heavy-laden heart, that was indeed their best morning devotion as couples.
Sam wakes up to the brightness of the morning, he stretches lazily and looks out his window. Yawns. Screams.
“Scared?”
“Wha-----wha-----what are you doing here? You---you---- you are dead!”
Sam said stammering and shivering at the same time.
“So, does it feel like a sudden dream? That you want to wake up from?”
Rotimi said calmly with a weird smile on her face.
Sam looks at her and swallows hard.
“Have you come to take revenge on me? I mean, I wasn’t even the one who shot the bullet? Why do you hate me this much?”
“Are you shifting blame?”
Rotimi said as she stood up from the chair she was in and headed towards his direction, Sam was hard scared and kept swallowing hard. At that moment, he didn’t even know what to think about, if to call her a demon spirit, to cast and bind her, whatever he was about to do, at that moment he was terribly confused. What he knew was that no dead ever came back to life, so many what he was seeing there was a bad dream that he wanted to wake up from immediately.
He looks at her already close to him.
“I cast you demon out in the name of Jesus, and you have no right to torment or torture me.”
Sam said with eyes closed, but his hands pointed at her. Rotimi was in awe of what he was doing, she looks at him and could not just believe what he saw.
“And this is supposed to mean what? I’m I here to play so karaoke with you? Where’s all this coming from, and come to think of it, you calling me a demon spirit? this torture only got interesting.”
Rotimi said as her canines appeared to be sharper than normal teeth, almost taking the shape of fangs. In the realm of the spirit, once it’s time for your first kill, or torment you become less than the real you, you appear to be more defensive than you normally do. That was the advantage you have for a successful kill. Kills are very necessary for a spirit’s realm.  They add up to your portfolio and also give you a part of a grand honorarium.
Sam wrestled with Rotimi to stay alive, but Rotimi had an advantage in strength over him, so he just couldn’t get past her. She had wounded him severally and was about to bite him to his death when she got distracted by the blood of a loved one, that was when Sam was able to have his way to attack her and she went away to see who it was. Then Sam woke up.
Panting fast as he searched his body on whether the scars to the scratches given to him by Rotimi would really come to the physical on his skin. He lets out a sigh of relief and holds his head. He just couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that first, Rotimi indeed came back hunting him.
“Dear God, keep me far from that girl, I know she is a spirit-made beast, and she is dead, and I have no business with the dead”
Sam said as he gets up from his bed to get his day started. Since his resignation was not accepted, doing what will attract it was the next thing on his mind at that moment.
Meanwhile, Oluwaseyi had gotten himself drunk and then into a car accident that night, Rotimi immediately rushed over to see what could have been the cause, but heartbroken when she finds out that it was yet another non-living thing that caused his blood to be seen.
Her hairs had risen up, but on seeing that there was no one to attack and the state of Oluwaseyi she pauses, the emergency sector had arrived earlier, and he was being taken to the hospital, just as though she was alive, she ran after then feeling the pains of losing Oluwaseyi. Yes, it might have been her plan to actually bring Oluwaseyi to the spirit realm, but not anymore. Oluwaseyi lay dead on the stretcher as the other doctor held his bleeding head with a cloth, to avoid the blood from flowing too much.
Rotimi rushed in with them shouting his name, but she was not seen by anyone nor was she heard, she stands back and saw him being taken to the surgery room. Her chest hurts, and she squeezed her hands to ease the pain then she even broke the spirit’s rule as tears came out of her eyes, no spirit had reached that peak of emotion, she must have really been attached to him. Mitchell touches her shoulder.
“It’s Time Rotimi”
“I want to go back to earth”
She said as she burst crying out loud, Mitchell was shocked and asked if spirits were allowed to cry, but at that moment she could see that that was Rotimi’s obsession and Oluwaseyi’s heart desire was to see her again. What a scene.
“Why does he have to go through all these uneasy things just to please the dead, are you stupid? Oluwaseyi are you stupid”
Wails.
Mitchell doesn’t even know where to start to comfort Rotimi at all, but she made sure she took Rotimi out of the scene.  
Chief Oluwaseun was yes, the hand behind the accident scene but the outcome wasn’t what he expected. Still staring at the scene with his hands behind him, he could only wear, nothing but a smile.
“Her mother would have been easy to forget, but you won’t let me, so dear Rotimi I hope this little surprise finds you well”
Chief Oluwaseun said with a very creepy smile on his face. Senator Tunde on the other hand could only feel pleased for what just happened and wishes that he totally should die.
“I wish nothing than his elimination, so after that, we take a full dose on that foolish girl that goes by the Name Rotimi, even unto death, my spirit in my spirit, never seem to find her appealing, anyways. She annoys me”
Senator Tunde trips in as cold as always.
Senator Lawal gave it a smile, because why not?
#
Femi had heard the news of Oluwaseyi so did Sir Charles, they rushed themselves to the hospital he was in, and they were not allowed into the ward.
“Doctor is he fine? Because I really want to know, can we go in please?”
“What is your relationship with the patient, sir!”
“he is my employee”
“a minute sir”
The doctor said going away from their presence. A few minutes the doctor returns to them and permits them, but they were not allowed to touch him.
“We did our best, and anyone in this situation is liable to be in a coma for 6 days minimum and 2 weeks maximum, but if after that, then we shall consider him dead. You are not also allowed to touch him.”
The doctor said, that Sir Charles and Femi agreed to the condition, and the Doctor agreed on it, and the doctor left them. Sir Charles so filled with compassion was at the edge of tears. Femi could only stand and watch him lay dead, and his heartbeat was still straight and steady.
Rotimi takes herself to the museum, trying hard to not look clumsy, at least let her do this one thing for her family.
Chief Oluwaseun comes out from the courtyard with his hands in his pocket. Rotimi scans around for a place to rest her ass, it’s been a night hunting, breaking, and solving issues.
Sighs.
“dear Rotimi! What could have brought your mood this low? I mean since you came to hear you’ve been at the peak of your moist happiest moments, why are you this dull?”
“Isn’t it supposed to be part of the ritual?”
“What Ritual?’
Chief Oluwaseun asked as though he had zero ideas of what Rotimi was talking about.
“Don’t play dumb, don’t get me upset either, I’m here just to get the information I need to gather from you before …the sun comes up”
“That’s very determined of you, though, shouldn’t that be part of some proud portfolios of yours?”
Rotimi Sighs.
“I will walk away if all this is going to be a waste of time!”
“Oh, okay! Chill out! Chill out”
Chief Oluwaseun said as he sits beside her with his legs crossed.
“You see, it started long ago-----”
“I know the whole story, I want to know the way out of this”
Rotimi cuts him short.
Chief Oluwaseun found that upsetting and annoying.
“Don’t try that again!”
He clearly stated to her as he relaxes his back on the wall.
“I know we are rivals; I hate you; you hate me, it’s known and stated and concluded theory but just this once, let me do something right”
“Is that a plea from the lips of Rotimi? One who swore never to bend back to the hearing of my words”
Chief Oluwaseun said and still had behind him the tactics he needed for the accomplishment of eliminating her. He calculates his next move but promises to give her the information but makes sure she is not able to do anything with it.
“Chief Oluwaseun please”
Rotimi at this point was willing to let her pride down, get the information, and see how she could let Femi Know about it.
“Okay! I see how important this is going to mean to you, very well then you said you know the whole story, so I don’t have to waste my time saying it again, but then the good part is that your death ended the ritual, your mother knows how this could be ended too, but why she did not tell your brother is what baffles me. Femi indeed has every right to treat her with hate.”
“My death? How? I do not get what you are talking about!”
“Second children are to be treated with care because they are the center of the Ritual”
“Okay!!!, and what happens next”
“Won’t you like to know my own part of the story of being the second child?”
Rotimi sighs and asked him to go ahead.
“The baton was passed on to me too, my father’s brother treated me worse, I had no good education, I did not sleep with the rest of the family, I didn’t eat good food, my dad did die, my mother became a depressed drunk, each of these issues has their different signs but the same result is still going to take place, no matter what”
Rotimi listened carefully to details and she listened carefully.
“First a bond is to be created between you and your father, he dies, your uncle does the torture, till the first child is of age to continue, the second child is not meant to be dead”
Once Chief Oluwaseun said that he rethinks his plan of eliminating her, her memory still stands a little chance of making the ritual continue so he looks at Rotimi who has gotten the answer to what she was looking for, she looks at Chief Oluwaseun, and wondered why he looked lost. He could not carry out his plan of eliminating her, he sighs and hated that Rotimi always gets her way.
“So that explains it.”
Rotimi said looking at Chief Oluwaseun.
“That explains what?”
“That explains the fact that at every point I tried self-destruction, I couldn’t die, I always did wake up, you tried killing me I still dint agree to die, not until an outsider did the killing”
And true to what Rotimi was saying, that was true.
“I’m glad we both died, so Femi can indeed have a good and happy life”
Rotimi smiled. That was a mood-enlightening thing to say to her. She didn’t know when she hugged him and runs off to her house, Mitchell could only wonder what it could be.
Chief Oluwaseun once again sits down to think about his death life, he walks back slowly to his house almost gloomy.
Rotimi goes back to her room that night to reveal herself to Femi. She walks into the room and the couples were fast asleep, she touches them both and went into their dreams.
Shocked.
“Where I’m I?”
Femi asked turning himself around and looking at what could actually give a clue to where he was.
“It’s in the boundary where spirits can talk to humans”
Rotimi said.
Femi was shocked to actually see Rotimi and what was even more surprising was the fact that Abeni was also there with him at the same time.
“Babe!”
Femi said hugging Abeni, Abeni was surprised to see Rotimi and also asked the same question Femi asked.
“Rotimi, I hope you’re not here to give us nightmares, we are really sorry if we did not care for you as we-----”
“chill Abe, Chill, I just came to give you guys an answer to what has just been revealed.”
Femi looks at Rotimi.
“If you are-----”
“I don’t have much time left to be here, I was the center of the Ritual, and now that I am dead, the ritual cannot take place”
It looked appealing at first, but that was the truth of the matter.
“Why does that look hard to believe”
“It's the truth, the charm or whatever has already been destroyed, which as my very existence, so I wish you both a happy married life, mum, knows it”
“your mother knows about it, but told you another thing, that wasn’t her fault, you’ve treated her badly already, she’s not at fault. I have to go now.”
Rotimi said and removed her hands from them and they woke up together looking at each other and at their room.
Femi rushes to his mother’s room to ask her if that was true. The alter was already broken so nothing was controlling her again, so she confirmed it and was scared of Femi’s next action, but Femi hugs his mother and Abeni followed suit.
Rotimi smiles at their happiness and returns back to her house.
#
Just like every morning, Rotimi and Mitchell will always meet downstairs, but that morning, Mitchell waited but did not see her, so she went to her room and still could not find her, she only could think of one place, the Museum, and she went in and partly half of Rotimi’s body was turning ice-cold, then did she realize that Rotimi had given herself for Oluwaseyi to live again.
“What are you doing?”
Mitchell said shouting hitting the glass where Rotimi had entered. Rotimi opens her eyes and looks at Mitchell.
She remembers the same scene when she was shot and was in Oluwaseyi’s arms dying, she closed her eyes and whispered to Mitchell.
“I’m sorry”
“Rotimi, Rotimi you don’t have to do this…”
Mitchell said banging the glass, just when the ice-cold effect had reached her neck, all the memories they ever had slowly wiped away, even on earth, it became as though she never existed, and Mitchell looks at the effect taking over her as Mitchell closes her eyes and couldn’t remember who the body belonged to. Her body on earth, fades away, in Femi’s mind, Abeni, Sam, her mother, the twins, Chief and his friends, Mitchell even Oluwaseyi, no one remembered who she was, and her spirit was taken up to the higher realm where they are called honored spirits.
Oluwaseyi coughs and wakes up, Sir Charles rushes to him and hugs him, he found it strange to be hearing that he drinks. After he was discharged from the hospital, He went ahead to the old church and rededicated his life, as the reason why he would drink wasn’t verified.
No one spoke of Rotimi, because no one remembered her, only in the spirit realm, she was noted for giving her life for another.
The heart will always want what it wants, so make sure you guard it diligently.